Tom Rothman Claims a ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ Sequel Is Likely for 2014

Few big-budget projects, let alone sequels, interest me more than Fox’s eventual follow-up to Rise of the Planet of the Apes — which, as you might understand, put news of Rupert Wyatt’s Agent 13 over on the disconcerting side. I mean, how long would we have to wait for this thing? Studio CEO Tom Rothman doesn’t hold any concerns, though, having told Collider that further adventures of Caesar and his primate friends will, nevertheless, still come our way in just a few years.

His lips obviously need to be kept sealed, but Rothman was able to label Apes 2 a project that’s both “very much on the tracks” and being “[pushed] forward aggressively,” with the script currently being devised for a returning Rupert Wyatt. And, while not able to confirm or deny anything as of right now, Fox is basically aiming for a release in the summer of 2014.

That’s about as near as we could expect a good film to hit theaters, so I’ll take that gladly. This news still isn’t quite enough for an Apes fan who was more than happy with last summer’s reboot, however; I want to know what they’re doing with the characters themselves, specifically how they’d handle the unique talking conundrum, faced by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. But, to be fair, I’ll take another incremental update over nothing at all.

Has an Apes sequel been on your mind at all? Will you still be excited for it two years from now?